I Just Flew a Plane For The First Time
Up in the air is where no one could disturb me. I found a wonderful place.
A little backstory: Since I was very small I always wanted to become a pilot. When we went to the beach my dad would draw planes into the sand and I would sit in them and be the happiest little kid in the world! I played flight sim for hours, loved visiting the airforce museum and would learn anything on planes that I possibly could. In fact, I still love doing all those things today!
Then, I was gifted an hour of flying with an instructor. I had to wait nearly a whole year to redeem it and then finally came the big day.
I arrived at a grass strip with a hanger in what seemed like the middle of absolutely nowhere. After signing up and writing my name and phone number for about the millionth time, the instructor, speaking a barely understandable Bavarian accent, strapped me in and started taxiing down the strip. I had never been in a small aircraft before and the turbulence is quite something else, especially when going through mountain valleys with strong updrafts.
The instructor flew me over a lake, around a part of the Austrian alps and eventually handed the controls over to me. Flying the aircraft was surprisingly easy and quite similar to a simulator. I suddenly found myself in an extremely peaceful and relaxed state. Up there, nobody could disturb me and there were no cars speeding past every other second. I could just sit back, fly and look down at the world 5000 ft below me.
Sadly, when the time came to approach the airfield again, the instructor took over. Suddenly the world was turned upside down as he rapidly gained altitude and flew inverted for what felt like ages, but was only a couple of seconds. It’s a very different feeling when everything is on its head and you feel you should be falling to earth but are actually just being squished into your seatbelt while all the blood rushes to your head.
After what felt like only a few minutes the experience was over and all of that child-like passion for everything to do with flying came right back. So, whatever you’ve always wanted to do since you were a child, do it!
